First Words Deluxe vs Cursive Writing Wizard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
First Words Deluxe
This app helps toddlers learn letters, spelling, and reading through interactive games. It features over 150 words across five categories and supports multiple languages, with adjustable difficulty levels for personalized learning.
- Learn letters and spelling
- Over 150 words in 5 categories
- Multiple language support
- Adjustable difficulty levels
- Phonics option
- Toddler-friendly interface
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* Finalist for the BestAppEver Award: Toddler Apps * The best-selling reading game for kids has gotten even better! We've added more words, more languages, and phonics. First Words Deluxe provides endless fun for the toddlers in your life, all while giving your child a head start on learning their letters and learning to spell words. Now with Spanish, French, German, Japanese, plus US and UK English. First Words Deluxe is toddler-tested and approved, with a user-interface designed specifically for the littlest of fingers. The game includes over 150 words in five kid-friendly categories: ** Animals ** ** Vehicles ** ** Colors ** ** Shapes ** ** Words from around the house ** (Fewer words are shown when the phonics option is selected, because many English words are not spelled phonetically. A total of 68 phonics words are included.) A wide range of options let you tune the game to match your child's current skills and abilities. If your child is old enough to ask for your phone, they're old enough for First Words Deluxe! Here's what educators and reviewers have said about our First Words apps: “First Words is an app that teaches letters and words in fun and interactive way. Very easy to use these apps will help support your little ones learning with great illustrations and bright colors. Each app supports kids learning and encourages kids to explore and discover by revealing, rewarding and teaching.” -- Fun Educational Apps “Excellent - As a teacher, I love this game! Just what technology was meant to do!” -- iTunes Review “This app has great settings that let you control the level of difficulty for the child – either with lots of hints or almost none at all. The letters slide nicely into each word and when completed the child is rewarded by having the pictured animal enlarge and animate briefly.” --Carisa Kluver at Digital Stortyime “First Words Deluxe is a very straightforward word-building game. Words are either said letter by letter as they are dragged into the appropriate gray boxes or, if chosen in the settings, a smaller set of words can be sounded out with phonics. This makes this game a treat for both pre-readers and early spellers.” --Common Sense Media “Looking to guide your toddler towards recognizing letters and how to spell words up to eight letters long? Then First Words Deluxe might be just what you are looking for. This pre-reader and spelling application encourages vocabulary development in a wide range of categories such as: vehicles, animals, at home, colors, and shapes.” --Andrea Gardner at Applicable2u "First Words is a great app -- as I said at the time, 'Leo loves First Words because it's fun and easy. I love it because he's learning to spell words, and the interface makes that learning error-free.'" ---Shannon Des Roches Rosa at Squidalicious *** We love getting feedback from our users. If you have questions or comments, please send them to info@learningtouch.com. ***
Cursive Writing Wizard
This app teaches children cursive handwriting through interactive tracing, games, and customizable word lists. It supports various fonts, phonics, and progress tracking, with features for left-handed users and accessibility.
- Cursive letter and word tracing
- Customizable word lists with audio recording
- Interactive games and animated stickers
- Progress tracking and replayable tracings
- Multiple font options (US, UK, French, Swiss)
- Left-handed mode
- Printable worksheets
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• Editor's Choice Award (96/100) - Children's Technology Review • "Simply an amazing app for kids to learn cursive writing." - 5/5 - Top Pick - smartAppsForKids.com 142,000 units sold (including 62,000 to schools)! • Teach and reinforce the accurate tracing of cursive letters, as well as the proper way to join letters within words, utilizing our proprietary technology • 3 most popular US fonts (ZB, DN & HWT) + UK , French and Swiss fonts • Customise by adding your word lists (and record audio for each word) • Enjoy engaging tracing with 50+ animated stickers, sound effects, and interactive games that bring letters to life at the end of each tracing • Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers, and words • Fully customizable to suit every child’s needs (letter size, difficulty,...) • Phonics and letter names for each letter • Monitor progress through reports that allow the replay of the child's tracing • Introduce toddlers to shapes tracing activities, fostering early developmental skills • Left-Handed Mode • Create printable Worksheets to assist your child with handwriting practice on paper • Apple Pencil support • Accessibility settings for children with visual impairments _______ PERFECT FOR KIDS Kids want to have fun, and Cursive Writing Wizard offers a lot of fun to keep them motivated in the learning process! • They can trace using 50+ animated stickers and sound effects • Once tracing is complete, they can interact with them on 5 games that animate letters • They can trace any word - like their name - and record their voice for each word • They can collect stars in 5-Stars play mode _______ PERFECT FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Detailed reports provide information on what kids have done, including the ability to replay and export the tracings to view kids' progress • Share word lists via iCloud drive or other cloud providers, adhoc network, or email • Multiple parameters to customize the app according to the child’s current education level (e.g. letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc.) • 3 most popular US fonts (ZB, DN & HWT) + UK and U French fonts • Upper and lower case letters, numbers + word lists • Letter names and letter sounds (which can be customized) • A customizable 5-Stars play mode prompting the child to trace a letter or a word 5 times using different parameters (each step is more challenging) • Create an unlimited number of users • Many settings to customize the app (sound, game time limit, black background,...) • Left-Handed Mode • In the A-Z section, special graphics available to match letters (e.g. ant graphic for A/a) • Accessibility settings for children with visual impairments _______ "Cursive Writing Wizard is just as wonderful and well-designed as the original Writing Wizard" 5/5 - AppyMall.com _______ Privacy Policy KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE As a Moms with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps L’Escapadou takes children’s privacy seriously. We believe you should not have to worry about your kids being tracked by apps or websites. This app: • Does not collect any user information (we do not use data collection tools) • Does not contain in-app purchases • External Links: Protected parent sections are available where you can send us a mail and check out our others apps. Before accessing a parent section, an addition must be solved so that young kids cannot access it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: First Words Deluxe at $4.99 against Cursive Writing Wizard's $12.99. First Words Deluxe also leads on iOS requirement (12.2 vs 15.6). Cursive Writing Wizard's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (793 vs 51). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
First Words Deluxe costs $4.99 and Cursive Writing Wizard $12.99 up front. First Words Deluxe sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cursive Writing Wizard asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for First Words Deluxe against 4.4 for Cursive Writing Wizard. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Cursive Writing Wizard has 793 ratings behind it against 51, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 89% and 89% positive.
First Words Deluxe ships an update every 4 months, Cursive Writing Wizard every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | First Words Deluxe | Cursive Writing Wizard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $12.99 |
| Rating | 4.3 (51 ratings) | 4.4 (793 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.2% of reviews — better | 88.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 51 | 793 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.2 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 103 MB | 65 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Learning Touch LLC | Pierre Abel |
Customer experience
First Words Deluxe
Cursive Writing Wizard
User reviews
First Words Deluxe
From 51 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use interface
- 🚀 Smooth letter dragging
- 📚 Wide variety of words
- 🎨 Bright, engaging visuals
- 🔊 Pronounces letters and words
Room to improve
- 🐛 Some words disappear when switching to phonics mode
- 🇺🇸 Uses American spellings, not suitable for all regions
- 💰 Expensive to buy multiple language versions
Cursive Writing Wizard
From 793 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun and engaging way to learn cursive
- 💡 Ability to add custom words and audio
- 👍 Helpful for students with fine motor difficulties
- 👍 Supports left-handed writing
- 👍 Comprehensive coverage of cursive letters and numbers
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional glitches and bugs
- 🔍 Lack of uppercase cursive letters
- 🔍 Limited content and gets boring quickly
- 🔍 Doesn't include IPA letters and pronunciations
Bugs and requests
First Words Deluxe
Reported bugs
2 issues- Words sometimes disappear from the screen
- Occasional crashes or freezes reported
Requested features
4 requests- Allow users to add custom words and images
- Expand word list with more advanced vocabulary
- Implement a phonics-focused mode for all words
- Add multilingual support in the base app
Cursive Writing Wizard
Reported bugs
3 issues- Tracing not recognized properly at times
- App crashes or freezes unexpectedly
- Certain words not working as expected
Requested features
4 requests- Add uppercase cursive letters
- Implement a coin/reward system for practicing
- Include International Phonetic Alphabet support
- Expand content and add more variety
In-app purchases
First Words Deluxe
- Word Pack 1$4.99
Cursive Writing Wizard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is First Words Deluxe free?
Is Cursive Writing Wizard free?
Which has better reviews, First Words Deluxe or Cursive Writing Wizard?
Do First Words Deluxe or Cursive Writing Wizard have ads?
Which is updated more often, First Words Deluxe or Cursive Writing Wizard?
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